History of Innovation

Korn/Ferry International was founded by Lester B. Korn and Richard M. Ferry in Los Angeles.

Korn/Ferry International is the first major U.S. executive search firm to operate in the Asia Pacific region, opening an office in Tokyo. This is also the year the Firm published its first annual Board of Directors study.

Our second regional office opens in Singapore.

Recognizing the importance of the Greater China Region (GCR), we opened our Hong Kong office. We also expanded our ASEAN operations by starting the Kuala Lumpur business the same year. Globally, this is the first year that the firm was ranked the world's largest search firm by Fortune magazine.

Australasian operations open in Sydney, Australia.

Melbourne becomes our second office in Australia.

The third ASEAN-based office opens in Bangkok.

This year, Lester Korn was appointed U.S. Ambassador to the Economic & Social Council of the United Nations.

Our first office in India in Bombay (now Mumbai) opens.

We expand our GCR footprint into the People's Republic of China by introducing executive search in Beijing.

Jakarta becomes our fourth ASEAN office coinciding with the formation of a new specialty practice addressing the talent needs of Asian Family Groups that traditionally have operated in this sub-region. Also in 1996, we opened our Wellington office in New Zealand, further widening the Australasian footprint.

As part of our emerging markets strategy, we open second offices in both China and India this year, in Shanghai and New Delhi, respectively.

Seoul rounds out our North Asia presence.

In addition to acquiring Amrop International and opening an office in Brisbane to bolster our Australasian network, we introduced Futurestep, currently our outsourced recruiting subsidiary, in Australia in September 1999. Globally, the Firm had gone public earlier that year.

A Korn/Ferry office opens in Auckland, New Zealand, while Futurestep expands not only to New Zealand, but also Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Tokyo.

Korn/Ferry is recognized as the leading executive search firm in Asia by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). It has received numerous accolades in the local markets since then.

The Firm was awarded Sino-foreign search joint venture by Beijing Personnel Bureau followed by another Sino-foreign search joint venture award by Shanghai Personnel Bureau in 2003.

Futurestep expands its operations into Shanghai in October, while we embark upon a study of Chinese leadership styles with Peking University.

We relocate our regional strategic center of operations to Shanghai to reflect the increasing importance of China to our clients worldwide. Later that year, Futurestep introduces its services in New Delhi, India.

In concert with the Economist Intelligence Unit, in August of 2006 we conducted a survey of over 300 C-level executives worldwide to gauge perceptions of Asia's growing influence in the global operating environment entitled "The Dream Team: Delivering Leadership in Asia."

As part of our regional "delivering Leadership" campaign, we have expanded our thought leadership initiatives to include partnerships with ADVANCE (Global Australian Professionals(, the Faldo Series Asia, the International Market Assessment group in India, Lexis-Nexis and others to help drive conversations that will help shape the future of Asia's business landscape. We also launch our third Indian office in Bangalore and a fourth Greater China office in Guangzhou while Futurestep further expands its Indian operations into Mumbai in June.